Greeks in Michigan: No Average Argonauts

Ann Rapanos Harris with Sam Harris (Haralambopoulos) in front of
Alex Rapanos' home on Rapanos Drive in Midland, Michigan

GREEKS IN MICHIGAN:

NO AVERAGE ARGONAUTS

Published in The National Herald, May 13, 2006 Issue

Authored by Steve Frangos

Special to The National Herald

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I am excited to announce that The National Herald has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.

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Vasilios Anagnostopoulos was
born on January 11, 1888 in the
small village of Steno, located near
Tripoli in the Peloponnese. He
was the eldest of six children, followed
by Charalambos, Christiana,
Andriana, Georgia and Nicoletta.
Like many of his generation,
he was destined to travel far.
While he was still a teenager, he
was to change the economic and
even cultural circumstances of
northeastern Michigan.Sad to say, however, much too
much of Greek American history
is lost forever.No one from the family Anagnostopoulos
established in North
America is now alive. The recollections
of grandchildren,
nephews, family friends and scattered
public records are all which
is left to report on this one man's
life and actions.As anyone within the Greek
American community can well attest,
all too many platitudes are
endlessly voiced by members of
our community concerning the
early Greek immigrant businessmen.
But collective aggrandizement
is one thing, history is another.EQUALLY SCATTEREDWhat few Greek Americans recall
today is that, by 1910, Greek
immigrants were equally scattered
in small towns and major
metropolitan areas all across
North America. This demographic
dispersal did not go unnoticed. In
his book, “Greeks in America: An
Account of Their Coming,
Progress, Customs, Living and Aspirations (Sherman, French &
Company, Boston: 1913),” the
Rev. Thomas Burgess took special
care to stress the following:“Let us remind the reader of
that by other large and important
classes of Greek colonies - or
rather, of groups of individuals -
we mean those thousands of
Greek men scattered everywhere
throughout every state in the
Union by ones, twos, tens or even
a few more. Such isolated Greeks,
though ever remaining devoted
sons of Hellas, become - because
of their very isolation from their
fellow countrymen - quickly assimilated
into American life, and are
everywhere respected as enterprising
businessmen and good fellows
(pg. 175).”By reviewing what is recalled of
Vasilios Anagnostopoulos' various
accomplishments, even these often-fragmented
bits of information
depict a man of considerable
daring who was unafraid of demanding
work habits. His life can
well represent an entire generation
of small town Greek American
businessmen.Vasilios arrived in Chicago in
1900 and was immediately put to
work in a confectionary. By 1901,
he moved from Chicago to Bay City,
Michigan where he opened a
candy store. Recollections are unclear
whether or not the 12-year old
Anagnostopoulos opened this
business on this own (family members
debate extensively on this point). Still, given the amount of
time he had spent in America, it
seems unlikely he would have been
able to raise the necessary funds in
such a (relatively) short period of
time.Given what we know about his
life, however, we can note that
Anagnostopoulos was never shy
about having partners. At this moment
it seems likely that, once he
arrived in northeast Michigan, he
did so with some now forgotten
partners.Between 1901 and 1915, the energetic
and enterprising Anagnostopoulos
opened two more confectionaries,
one in Saginaw the other
in Flint. Today, unfortunately,
family photographs exist only for
the Flint confectionary. There
seem to be a number of reasons
why this is the case. To begin with,
it was in Flint where Vasilios met
and married Ida, who is recalled
not by her maiden name, but that
she was of German extraction.The store's interior, as seen in a
number of photographs, reveals
that, at some point between 1901
and 1915, young Anagnostopoulos
had changed his name to William
Poulos. While the exact date of
this transformation is lost to history,
we can still see it. In a 1915
photograph of the Flint store's interior,
the center of the back mirror
is clearly seen. “Wm. Poulos,”
spelled out in leaded glass, is visible
at the mirror's peak.What many young Greek
Americans fail to realize is that
“old-fashioned small-town Greek
candy kitchens” are as American
as apple pie.COMMANDING FORCEGreek immigrants were a commanding
force in the ice cream
and soda fountain business from
the early 1900's until just after
World War II. The fact that nostalgic
reminisces of small-town
America very often feature a
Greek-owned candy store is little
remembered today. In Sinclair
Lewis' 1920 novel, “Main Street
(Harcourt & Brace, New York),” the panorama of stores along this
archetypical American small-town
street includes “the Greek candystore,
the whine of a peanut-roaster
and the oily smell of nuts (pg.
34).” Or in the WPA-produced
“New York: A Guide to the Empire
State (1940, reprinted 1976),”
we hear this association even more
clearly stated: “No town of any
size would be complete without a
Greek candy kitchen.”The Poulos couple was to have
four children: Louis, William Jr.,
George and Helen (later Mrs. A.F.
Fuhlbrugge). The two oldest boys
are seen as very small children in
family photographs of the Flint
store.William Poulos arrived in Midland,
Michigan on December 12,
1916. There, he opened a confectionary
store/restaurant, which he
operated with great success until
1923. Regrettably, the name of
this store is lost to family memory,
and strikingly, public directories of
Midland no longer extend that far
back in time. Family documents
suggest Poulos also kept his Flint
store until 1923, for it was in that
year when Poulos purchased the
Reardon Building on Midland's
Main Street (between Rodd and
Ashman Streets), renaming it the
Poulos Block. Not long after this acquisition, Poulos purchased yet
another confectionary store and
restaurant in the town of Mt.
Pleasant, which is some 28 miles
north and west of Midland.It is recalled that, when Poulos
and his family arrived in Midland,
other Greeks already resided in
this small city. Exactly how many
Greek Americans were there
when Poulos arrived is unclear.By 1929, we know that Tom
Pantzopulus, who is remembered
as a cook, lived in Midland with his
wife Catherine and their son
Pantzis. During this same period,
Nick Pappas owned Coney Island
Lunch at 230 East Main Street
and, along with his wife Fannie,
had four children: Charles, Helen,
George and James. Stephen
Stevenson, a Greek despite his
Anglicized name, first owned the
LaSalle Restaurant at 134 East
Main. Stevenson was married to
Esther, and they had one daughter:
Katherine. Gus Sarantos and
his family were also residents.In 1929, William Poulos, aside
from these rental properties in the
Poulos Building, also let rooms at
246 East Main. Poulos never relinquished
a piece of property in
Midland during the 1920's, but
rather rented out his various stores
while simultaneously working in
Mt. Pleasant. In 1930, Poulos sold
his Mt. Pleasant business and
opened the highly successful Busy
Bee Restaurant on Midland's Main Street.The history of Midland is forever
tied to the Dow Chemical Company.
On May 18, 1897 Dow was
incorporated, based on Herbert H.
Dow's plan to manufacture and
sell bleach on a commercial scale.
In time, Dow Chemical became
the largest chemical company in
the world, and for decades, Midland
remained the site of its largest plant complex.With company headquarters
still located in Midland today,
Dow Chemical remains a global
giant, ranking among the largest
corporations on the planet. Yet
when the Greeks first arrived in
Midland, they could not work for
Dow.At that moment in time, Dow
Chemical Company did not hire
Catholics, African Americans or
any ethnic groups, either. But
times have certainly changed. As
one local Midland Greek American
puts it, “It went from Dow
never hiring Greeks to Greeks
running Dow.” In 2000, Dow
elected William S. Stavropoulos,
president and chief executive officer.
Andrew N. Liveris, is Dow's
current president and CEO.

Alex Rapanos in his grocery store in Chicago during the early 1930's.
His family has settled in Michigan.

Tom Poulos and his son, Tom Jr., are pictured left behind the counter,
while Helen Poulos sits at the counter holding a menu at the Busy Bee
Restaurant in Midland, Michigan in this 1930's photo

Tom Poulos stands in front of the
Loreili Gardens in Bay City,
Michigan in this 1940's photo.

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